Peela's letter

[Guest guest]

Dear Greg

 

> Hi Pella,

> Being 55 and being healthy is not so hard.

> Being 75 and being healthy is somewhat harder.

> At 85 its rear hard and dietary choices made 20

> years earlier have a BIG effect.

 

yes- I agree- but I dont think a good diet is much

more than common sense. Really.

 

 

> I'm on a pathway to probably becoming a vegan and

> I'm exploring ALL the health issues involved. It

> would be nice to

> think all that was required for good health in old

> age was to eat vegan but it ain't so.

 

Of course not because its an extreme, and a diet too

high in raw foods, particularly in cool climates, is

unhealthy- ask the chinese or indians, and they have

been around a long time.

I have been a strict vegetarian, a vegan, a

macrobiotic enthusiast, into the Blood group diet, a

strict 80% raw diet, done lots of fasting and detoxes-

over the years. I am 34. I am currently into Ayurveda-

and drinking milk, eating ghee, a little fish and

chicken. Because I cant maintain any extreme, because

I have to enjoy my diet, because I get sick on a

strict vegetarian diet, and because I love to

experiment on myself.

 

The way we eat today bombards

> us with Omega 6 rich foods and very little Omega 3.

> Add to that carb

> rich diets which boost insulin and you have a recipe

> for eicosanoid production out of balance and body

> wide health

> issues

 

I am sure that technically what you are saying is

correct, but how do you have soul in your diet when

you are measuring everything?. You cant eat from

technical tables and lists, you have to relate to it

from your heart.

 

Last year I went to a naturopathic seminar (they talk

just like you!)and sat next to a medical doctor with

an interest in alternative medicine who had recently

been to France to the World Conference on Longevity or

some such thing. He told me that the single factor

that produced more long living people in France than

any other country was the fact that they ate

1000calories a day less than the British across the

channel. There were scientists from all over the world

there proposing their longevity theories, and he

reckoned the conclusion of the whole conference was

simply that overeating caused unecessary aging. They

looked at other factores in the French diet, such as

red wine, olives, whatever- but they didnt account.

The French tend to eat fresh food bought regularly

from the local stores daily, white bread, regular

small quantites of chocolate and pastries (as in one

piece of chocolate after a meal), lots of stuff we

would consider unhealthy- but their food is fresh, and

they dont eat as much. There have been oodles of tests

done on animals which have shown that animals on a

reduced calorie diet live longer.

 

 

> To keep they ratio leaning toward the good side, you

> need to get more Omega 3 rich foods and less insulin

> stimulation

> carbs.

>

> So there, that was not too technical.

 

 

I have done technical, I have studied sciences in my

naturopathic training, my dad is a scientist, and if I

thought technical was going to help, I would- I am

capable of understanding it, even the chemistry. I

just think if you take the heart and soul out of

eating - which modern, highly processed junk food has

done- you miss, no matter what you technically put in

your mouth. Measuring everything according to its

nutritional status is as souless as eating junk food.

And a home cooked meal , cooked by someone who loves

to cook, which is technically too high in saturated

fat may do you more good, in other words nourish you,

more than a technically correct one with the correct

balance of Omegas if its prepared by someone who sees

the food only in technical terms. Food has many

dimensions. ( I am not saying you do that, i dont

know)

I like to keep it simple, and I can get obsessional

over my health, so I watch that too, and try to keep a

balanced outlook.

 

My 2 cents

love

peela